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Sport, Health and Exercise Sciences (Sport Development) BSc

Overview

We regularly host online webinars to give you the chance to find out more about our courses and what studying at Brunel is like.

Recent webinars

Access our recent webinar- including an online presentation followed by a question and answer session.

About the course

Sport Sciences at Brunel University London are currently ranked as the best in London. As a Brunel student, you will enjoy research-led teaching of the highest quality; quality that will stand you in good stead in your future employment. Our great location in London, plus our strong links with sports personnel, organisations and institutions at local, regional, national and international levels, enables us to offer our students considerable opportunities for career progression.

Sport development involves learning how to plan, manage, deliver and evaluate sport programmes and events that will enable and encourage individuals to take part in sport – from grassroots to elite levels. Our sport development programme includes modules on delivering sport, young people’s sport experiences, event management, and sporting communications.

In addition to acquiring academic skills and knowledge, our students engage in a number of learning opportunities that focus on the development of career-related skills such as: video production, planning and delivering a sport event in the community, grant-writing, using digital technology and social media, presentations, group work, and independent research. Students on our sport development programme learn from staff who are actively engaged in sport development work. For example, we currently have projects with the IOC, UNICEF, SportEngland, the Football Association, Street League, and UK sport. In addition, we provides students with opportunities to gain work experience through placements.

Please note: you only have to decide on your pathway at the beginning of your second year.

Aims

Sport development is a degree for students who are passionate about sport and want to learn how to create and deliver high quality sporting opportunities and events for diverse populations.

It is an ideal time to study sport development as there is increasing recognition of the many ways that participation in sport contributes to lifelong health and well-being. Our sport development programme helps you develop skills such as communication, leadership, and resourcefulness that are required for success in this exciting industry.

Course Content

All of our new undergraduate programmes comprise discrete study blocks, which enables students to draw on the knowledge and skills acquired from a combination of study blocks; such integrated learning is a proven cornerstone of effective learning. You only have to decide on your pathway at the start of your second year at Brunel.

Special Features

Placement Opportunities

All Sport Sciences students can include a work placement year as part of their course. Current students are working at many different companies in the UK and overseas including Queens Park Rangers Football Club, the London Sports Trust and Quiksilver. We encourage all students to undertake a placement as research shows that these students secure better grades in their final year and earn significantly more upon graduation.

The annual National Sports Roadshow on the Brunel campus showcases all the possible careers open to sport science graduates.

American Exchange Programme

San Francisco State University is the destination for two of our undergraduate students every year. All undergraduate sport science students can apply for the exchange. If selected, you would study for one year in America then return to Brunel for your last year of study.

Facts and Figures

We have some of the best sports facilities in the UK with include an indoor and outdoor sports and fitness complex.

Teaching and Assessment

Teaching

How will we maximise your learning?

At Brunel, our emphasis is placed on students’ active involvement in learning; it is not a passive process, whereby you simply ‘absorb’ knowledge. The development of independent study skills is facilitated through set reading tasks, student-led seminars, group work/presentations, laboratory work and self-testing, and culminates in the writing of the final year dissertation. To this end, we regularly use formative assessment – the ongoing process whereby students reflect on their own learning – to foster a sense of confidence and independence.

In order to maximise your learning opportunities, we are committed to providing you with access to high quality resources (including those designed for students with special needs) and the best possible learning environment. We will introduce you to the services provided by the Library and by the Computer Centre as part of your induction programme and give you a library card along with a username and password allowing you unlimited access throughout your period of study to the library resources, the University intranet, email and the World Wide Web.

How will we teach you?

Teaching excellence is given a very high priority. Our teaching is enhanced by staff scholarship, research and involvement in sport performance and with national/international agencies and organisations.

We constantly review our teaching methods in response to students’ mid-module and end-of-module feedback. Developing innovative learning and teaching methods, including ‘virtual laboratories’ and use of the Internet, is an ongoing process.

Lectures – Lectures take place in a relatively formal setting. They aim to impart information and to provide you with a framework and the stimulation for independent study. You are encouraged to take notes to maximise this learning opportunity.

Seminars – Seminars are an integral part of the teaching process in Sport Sciences. Lecture material is examined in more detail, or theoretical concepts and/or data are analysed and discussed in small groups. Seminars give you the opportunity to engage with members of staff and other students to a greater extent than is possible in a lecture setting.

Tutorials – All our members of academic staff have published office hours during which time they are available to discuss academic matters relating to specific modules. Individual or small group tutorials are integral to the dissertation module.

Practicals – Practical classes are designed to give you hands-on experience of some of the experimental techniques relevant to particular Sport Sciences disciplines. They often give you the opportunity to use laboratory and field equipment while working with human participants, in order to collect, analyse, interpret, and present your results in an appropriate format. Importantly, there are also sport performance-based classes, where the emphasis is on linking theory with practice.

Computer-assisted sessions – Computer-assisted sessions are used to teach quantitative data analysis methods, during which you will be given the chance to practise analytical methods in a computer laboratory, equipped with sufficient terminals to allow everyone hands-on experience. Many of the laboratory practical sessions in physiology and biomechanics also incorporate the use of information technology in data collection, analysis and computer simulation.

How will we support and guide you?

Should you choose to study at Brunel you will be guided and supported from the admissions stage onwards. On entry to the University you will be allocated your own Personal Tutor who can give advice about any matter within their capability. If they can’t, then they can refer you to someone who can; for example, counselling, medical treatment or dyslexia support.

The tutor-student relationship normally lasts for the whole of the three-year period of your degree course. Hence on completing your degree and entering the world of work, there will be a member of staff ideally placed to write you an academic and character reference.

Assessment

In keeping with our passion for developing motivated and independent learners, we employ a broad range of assessment methods, including individual projects, oral presentations, group projects, essays, case studies, oral assessments, laboratory report writing, written examinations, computer-based tests and practical tasks (these include sports laboratory work and in-the-field performance). End-of-term formal written examinations frequently form at least part of the assessment of a module and may include a number of elements, for example multiple choice, written essays, short answers and data analysis questions.

Sport Sciences graduates tend to fall broadly into two groups – those who ultimately wish to progress into sport and fitness professions and those who use their degree as a route into another non-related career. For example, close to 52% of our Sport Sciences graduates from 2012/13 are now employed in jobs classified as ‘managers and senior officials’, ‘professional’ or ‘associate professional and technical occupations’. [1] With around 60% of graduate positions open to graduates from all disciplines Sport Sciences graduates have a range of employment options open to them.

We prepare you for a broad range of career opportunities in a wide range of sport-related jobs, in such areas as coaching, consultancy, fitness testing and training, higher education and research, sport development, sport management, teaching, and youth work.

Graduates have found positions with, among others, the UK and regional Sports Councils, national governing bodies for sport, international organisations, sports clothing/footwear companies, professional clubs and local authorities, as well as in the leisure industry, the pharmaceutical industry, and the armed forces.

Undergraduate study can prepare you for PGCert (Education) courses and Master’s degrees.

Work Placements

All Sport Sciences students can include a work placement year as part of their course. Our urrent students are working at many different companies in the UK and overseas including Queens Park Rangers Football Club, the London Sports Trust and Quiksilver.

We encourage all students to undertake a placement as research shows that these students secure better grades in their final year and earn significantly more upon graduation. In 2010 the difference in pay between graduates who completed a placement and those who hadn’t showed that placement students earned £4,412 more per year, just six months after graduating.

The main objective of the work placement is to give Sport Sciences undergraduates an opportunity to apply their knowledge of theory to practical problems in real-life situations. In this way the relevance of the theory becomes more apparent and often the application of knowledge leads to a deeper understanding of the theory itself.

At Brunel we provide many opportunities and experiences within your degree programme and beyond – work-based learning, professional support services, volunteering, mentoring, sports, arts, clubs, societies, and much, much more – and we encourage you to make the most of them, so that you can make the most of yourself.

The Government has proposed changes to allow tuition fees for UK and EU students to rise by inflation. These changes are currently subject to approval, but if approved, would result in tuition fees of £9,250 per year from 2017/18.

Access to Higher Education Diploma Complete and pass a related subject Access course with 45 credits at Level 3 with Merit in all units. Applicants also need to demonstrate that they have substantial and relevant experience at a high level.

English Language Requirements

Brunel University London strongly recommends that if you will require a Tier 4 visa, you sit your IELTS test at a test centre that has been approved by UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) as being a provider of a Secure English Language Test (SELT). Not all test centres have this status. The University can accept IELTS (with the required scores) taken at any official test centre or other English Language qualifications we accept as meeting our main award entry requirements.

However, if you wish to undertake a Pre-sessional English course to further improve your English prior to the start of your degree course, you must sit the test at an approved SELT provider. This is because you will only be able to apply for a Tier 4 student visa to undertake a Pre-sessional English course if you hold a SELT from a UKVI approved test centre. Find out more information about it.

Brunel also offers our own BrunELT English Test and accepts a range of other language courses. We also have Pre-sessional English language courses for students who do not meet these requirements, or who wish to improve their English. Find out more information about English course and test options.